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Insurance companies will pay $362 million to the federal government's shared risk program beginning this November for 2014 participation, but will be short $2.5 billion in payments that they hoped to receive from the federal government, the Department of Health and Human Services announced on Thursday.
Healthcare organizations added 34,000 jobs in September, representing a small drop compared to the 41,000 jobs added in August, the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Friday.
Earlier this year Medicare gave bonuses to 1,700 hospitals and reduced payments to 1,360 hospitals based on their mortality rates, patient reviews, degree of improvement and other measurements.
On Thursday, providers dealt with system issues, which will be followed by productivity issues and then payment issues, according to healthcare insiders.
The American Medical Association was strangely quiet Thursday on the switch to ICD-10, but at least one physician was not, saying the new diagnostic coding system represents another administrative burden that is strangling independent doctor practices.
Thursday's expected announcement brings to fruition talks that began in November 2013, when AtlantiCare said a merger would reduce costs and improve efficiency of care.
South Peninsula Hospital in Homer, Alaska Speech and Language Clinic in Kenai and the Kenai Vision Center say the private company was late in reimbursing payment or failed to pay, resulting in millions in losses, according to the lawsuit.
Some hospitals have established a command center for triage, a major consultancy is taking the "virtual command center" approach, and a cloud-based EHR vendor is deploying foot soldiers to practices in several states on both U.S. coasts.
The federal government needs to increase its oversight over private Medicare health plans to make sure seniors have adequate access to doctors and hospitals, according to a report released this week by congressional auditors.
Healthcare IT News and sister site Healthcare Finance will be reporting on the changeover throughout the day, using the live blog below to highlight the latest news, real-time reactions and frequent updates from our cadre of volunteer ICD-10 correspondents.